Celebrate the Small Things!

Friday means a lot of things; the end of my work week, the day I can where a casual shirt to work, the day when I can be more flippant (wait, that's everyday), and the day I get to share all the cool stuff I've done this week. Thanks Viklit for giving us an outlet!

First off - The winners and runner-ups for spooktoberfest were posted yesterday here and here. Go check out some really great flash fiction pieces. I really enjoyed meeting some new and very entertaining and interesting people. And of course reading the entries of some of my favorite bloggers and long time friends.

Second - Halloween, despite the horrible weather, was a success. The kids had a really great time going back to the old neighborhood to hang out with their friends from their old school. I hope you guys had a safe and fun day as well. In the comments below tell me what your kids went as or what your favorite costume was that you saw wondering about.



Gabe (left) and his friend (both 15 but his friend is already 6'4"!!), Lani (Left) and her two cousins, Alexis (middle) and her two friends, and Kylar.

 Third - Now that I have hit my goals with my personal trainer we have decided to set new ones... run a 5k. Well technically it's 4 miles. My goal is to run a mile and walk 1/4 and then run a mile, then walk again. Eventaully I want to be able to run a 5k straight through. My first race... Dec 14th... in the snow. Ugh!

Fourth - Those who celebrate... Christmas is in 54 days. No... I'm not even close to being ready. And even though halloween is my favorite holiday, I am excited to put the fall decor away and put up the Christmas stuff.

Oh also, check out #ResurrectionBlogfestII hosted by Some Dark Romantic!

Have a great Friday and weekend!!

Spooktoberfest Winner and Runner-ups

The day is here! The day our Spooktoberites have been waiting for... it's reveal day!

And let me just say... this was hard. Like any hop or fest that has a winner, it was challenging just to narrow it down far enough to where I could wrap my head around who would be given the grand prize.

There are so many really REALLY great entries. We had a little bit of everything; slashers, vampires, zombies, haunted houses, pranksters, horror, humor, poems, etc. It was a Halloween Lover's delight!

Enough with my yammering, here is who I've picked as my winner and runner-ups...

The WINNER by a "splinter" is



Perfect! I loved the character voices, their names, and the originality of the whole thing. I could sit and listen, er, read them talk all day. Thanks for the wonderful Spooktoberfest piece Samantha!

 

 Seriously, it was so close between WriterlySam and these next writers...

    

I couldn't get over the relationship the vampire and the attendent had. I really liked all of the different characters you had and feel of the story was spot on.



Stacie was so brave to stop and watch what happened to her friend. I'm dying to know what happens next. Does she make it?



This one made me LOL. Karma at it's finest! For a first-timer, you did really great Lily!



    

Jackie and I both loved what each other picked but we wanted to spread the wealth so we picked different ones. Why? We have another little surprise... the Runner-Up's will be receiving a little something special as well and we didn't want any duplicates.

Check out who Jackie chose here!

You guys will be receiving emails in the near future!

Hope everyone has an awesome Halloween!!

LifeStraw® & Priority One Jets Haunted Places

Have you seen this before? It's called a LifeStraw®.

These little neat devices is a plastic tube 310 mm long and 30 mm in diameter. Water that is drawn up through the straw first passes through hollow fibres that filter water particles down to 0.2 µm across, using only physical filtration methods and no chemicals. The entire process is powered by suction, similar to using a conventional drinking straw, and filters up to 1000 litres of water. While the initial model of the filter did not remove Giardia lamblia, LifeStraw removes a minimum of 99.9% of waterborne protozoan parasites including giardia and cryptosporidium.

I will be stocking up on these bad boys in the near future. I find them quite ingenious and might come in handy. They also have a 50 year garantee and cost around $20. Can't beat that!

Design-real.com



Dynamicinventions.com


About a week ago I was contacted by a Content Coordinator from Priority One Jets asking me if I would like to post a link to an article they are doing about the scariest haunted attractions around the world. Now I get contacted a BUNCH from people asking me to post link to sites to help them promote movies or attractions all the time. But I usually pass on them because it has to be something I absolutely love. Well promoting some of the scariest palces is right up my alley so I'm giving it a go.

The link: http://www.priorityonejets.com/blog/just-tell-make-believe-7-terrifying-haunted-attractions-around-world/

Now I'm supposed to tell of a spooky tale or place to visit. Where I live there are 2 different "haunted" attractions I have been to and loved. One is the Haunted Jail and the other is the Haunted Barn. One year I worked in the Haunted Jail for our choir community service and it was a blast. I worked the polka dot room. The room is blacked out with black-lighta and illuminated glowing dots. Myself and another girl dressed up in puffy black plastic suites with those dots on us so we blended into the walls. When someone would walk in we would emerge from the wall and reveal our faces and scare the crap out of them.

What "haunted" places have you visited?

One more day until our Spooktoberfest winners will be announced! Stay tuned.

Happy Hallows Eve!

Spooktoberfest... Continued

Today is the last day to sign up and/or post your Spooktoberfest entries if you haven't already. Midnight is the cutoff point. Click here to find out more!

Then Jackie and I will read and re-read the submissions until we dwindle it down to the ones we like the best. Or we cry it out cause there are SO MANY really great entries this year.

It is going to be hard to decide but of course there has to be 2 winners, one who Jax has chosen and one I have chosen...

You all have made it so hard!

But this post is about something fun I wanted to do. Jackie posted her Spooktoberfest entry on Friday and it really got my creative juices flowing and I thought it was so good, why not extend her piece a little bit.

Hope you guys like it (however, I did not include the chosen words since this is not an official Spooktoberfest entry but I did keep it within the 500 word count and included the original picture so you could picture the scene). Don't forget to read Jackie's piece first if you haven't already - here.

...Continued

“Sydney!”  Trish screams.

I fight hard to get Lance’s jaw to unclamp from my leg but it is set like a snake, unwilling to let go until its prey is dead. Or undead in this case.

Trish kicks at Lance’s face, peeling back his flesh with each blow. “Give me the knife!” She yells, standing over me.

I hand it to her and as soon as it leaves my hand, she thrusts it straight into his skull. His jaw goes slack and I’m able to pull my calf out. It’s worse than I thought. Each blow Trish rendered to his face tore my muscle away from my leg.

“I have to cut it off,” I hear her whisper.

“Wha-what?” She’s shitting me right. There is no way I heard her correctly.

“I’m gonna try to cut it off.” Her eyes bore into mine. I can’t tell if she’s trying to hypnotize me into agreeing with her, or sending me pleading mind-messages.

“The muscle. You just mean the muscle, right?” A small hiccupped laugh escapes between my lips.

“No,” she whimpers and shakes her head.

I nod. It’s all I can do at this point. Nod. I can feel death come over me. The pain in my leg is gone now. Maybe it’s not death at all and adrenaline or endorphins, or whatever happens when your body goes into shock or is it because my sister is about to saw off my leg. I just want to pass the eff out. Can’t death just come and rescue me already? It’s my fault this happened in the first place.

“Sydney… Sydney?” Trish snaps her fingers in front of my face. “You ready?”

I nod. Again.

She starts right below the knee. I can hear her talking, saying things like, “smaller part of your leg”, “smaller bones to break.” Oh shit that’s a lot of blood. I’m going to bleed out before she’s even done. 

We can hear the pounding grow louder outside. They must smell the fresh blood. Trish looks down to the bottom of the steps. Tears stream down her pale cheeks. She reaches up to wipe them away but ends up smearing blood and tears across her face and into her hair.

“I’m done with the skin Sydney. Now I need to break the bones so I can separate the whole thing. Ok?” Her face looks strong for someone who’s about to mutilate her sister.

She pulls me towards the stairs, laying my now mangled leg down so the part she wants to break is over the empty area between the steps. She hesitates. “Ohmigod! DO IT! DO IT ALREADY!” I spout.

Trish hauls her right knee up to her chest, braces her hands on the banister, takes a deep breath and stomps her foot down so hard all I can hear is a “SNAP” and then she vomits all over me.

Nice, was the last thing I remember thinking, or maybe I actually said it, before passing out.



Hope you guys have a great Monday! Halloween in 3 days!

Spooktoberfest Begins Today!

TODAY IS THE DAY! Spooktoberfest has arrived and will continue on through the weekend and until midnight, Monday the 28th.

Yes, that means you are not too late to sign up and enter. As long as you do it before midnight of the 28th.

To read more on Spooktoberfest and hopefully enter for fun and prizes, please click here!

Let's get on with it shall we...




Rumplstiltskin and the Baby



the Dark Forest



The night was chilled with the impeding storm. She sat by the fire, swaying and chanting. Even before he forced open the door, his arrival was known.

“You wretched girl! What have you done to me?” His belly gorged with life.

“Did you not say, Mr. Stiltskin, you wanted my first born?” A wicked smile burned across the face of the girl who spun straw into gold.

She sauntered over to the old tramp who now rested his hands upon his belly. “This is not what I meant!” He bellowed.

“I recently summoned a man-caller,” the burn of her smile grew, “and oh what a man.” She paused at his ear. “You get my meaning?”

Her breath sent shivers down his spine. “You have to help me get it out you witch! After all – I did do you a favor once.”

“A favor? Ha! You blackmailed me you silly little troll. Next time make sure you know which devil you’re making a deal with.”

Mr. Rumpelstiltskin felt the pang of her baby kick his womb. “Oh!” he moaned as he ran out in to the cold and in to the Dark Forest.

She laughed her way to the door watching him waddle as he loped. “Grimm!” She called.

Her large mastiff bounded to her side. “Grimm, follow.” She commanded.

                                                            *****

Stiltskin ran as hard as he could, knowing he wouldn’t make it very far. The girl he once knew was not a little girl anymore.

Stupid him. He knew one day his trickery on others would be his undoing. He never thought it would be like this. He needed help. There was no way this baby could be delivered – naturally. Bile rose in his throat from the thought.

Another kick from the creature inside sent him to his knees.

He knew what he had to do.

His knife felt familiar yet alien in his hands. “I have to do this. I can do this,” he mumbled.

“No need,” the girl’s voice purred from the shadows.

His back stiffened with fear, the hair on his neck like needles.

“Grimm, lay him down please.” Grimm pulled Stiltskin to the ground by his collar, his bare belly praying to the sky.

“No please!” Rumple begged. Grimm slammed his paw down on the old man’s face, shutting him up for the last time.

He squirmed as only the meager troll could but the girl was determined to get that which she desired. He felt the tug of the knife and then the wail of a baby.

“There, there,” the girl crooned. “Why, Stiltskin, you’re the surrogate of a beautiful baby girl.”

The world was slipping from him now, but not before he heard –

“Grimm, eat.”

                                                            *****

Finally the girl had her child as expected. Her daughter will grow up strong and wise and no man will take her from her mother like her own father did.

“I think I’ll call you Maleficent.”

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and and even better weekend!

Ellen DeGeneres Freaks Out Staffers & Thirty-One Loves of Oct

I had to share this amazingly hilarious video of Ellen D freaking out two of her staffers. I was crying with laughter!! It's a must watch!!

Ellen DeGeneres freaks out staffers by sending them to 'Walking Dead' haunted house via TODAY show.

YouTube Link as well




Thirty-One Loves of October: Day 24:
The new DRACULA show starts tomorrow night! Woot! So excited. It looks really good!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Who's Your Hero Blogfest

J.L. Campbell is hosting a blogfest entitled, Who's Your Hero? Here is my Hero in less than 300 words.

SPC Anthony "Tony" W.

He used to come in my room at night and ask to sleep in my bed because he had a bad dream.

He would take my spot standing in the corner when I got punished so I could use the restroom.

When I was pregnant with my first child he would turn the bass up on his car stereo because he knew that was the only way he could feel my son kick. That smile every time he felt him move could melt the ice from any heart.

Every year my friends and I would go on a road trip the day after prom and I couldn’t go without him.

When I hit a deer late at night, he left work to help me out.

He let me in on a prank against his friends’ will because he knew I would be freaked out.

He tried to teach me how to drive a stick-shift even though I was older.

I would play cars with him to pay back the favor of me forcing him to play Barbie’s with me.

And now my favorite poem for him is…

Myself on left and Tony in the retro carrier.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft star-shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

Cause I know he is always with me…

For he is my brother.

Thirty-One Loves of October: Day 23:
Ouija Boards... *shutters*
Those things freak out. I used one once with a group of friends because I was such a sceptic... yeah, it was so dead on about someone that only I knew in my group (my grandma) that I will never touch one ever again!

Have a great Wednesday!